Heat Lightning
by nonvoxsedvotum
Summary: This story follows Thalia Grace as she runs away from home, meets Luke Castellan, and goes until the two meet Annabeth Chase. Single chapter/oneshot.


**This is a little like ****_Stars _****in that it's an origin story, though this one is Thalia's. I chose not to incorporate Jason Grace or the story from iThe Demigod Diaries/i because a) I'm not crazy about Heroes of Olympus, and b) I figure that, if you care, you've already read the stories and know what happens. Hope you enjoy. **

* * *

Thalia Grace stared at herself in the mirror. She did this a lot—examining her eyes, counting her freckles, things like that. According to her mother, Thalia looked a lot like her father. Thalia wouldn't know; she'd never so much as seen her dad before. But sometimes she would try to subtract her mother's features from her face and make a sketch in her mind of what her father had contributed.

At nine years old, Thalia was more competent than many adults. An alcoholic mother and an absent father led her to more or less raise herself, and she knew plenty about feeding and taking care of herself. She, however, wouldn't have turned out anything like this if it hadn't been for her mother.

Ms. Grace had once been an actress, but age and alcoholism had put her firmly off that career path. Now her days were spent drinking, sleeping off the previous day's drinking binge, and harassing her daughter.

"Your hair is so pretty, Thalia," Ms. Grace said, running a long-nailed hand through her daughter's long, thick black hair. "Like mine. But that's your father's color." Her face darkened slightly. "Oh, your father…"

Thalia squirmed out of her mother's reach. She knew what was coming and she hated it. Her mother could go on for hours about Thalia's father; how wonderful he'd been and how fantastic, but also how awful and selfish and cruel he was for leaving her.

But instead of going off, Thalia's mother grabbed her purse. "I'm going out," Ms. Grace announced. "_Try_ to stay out of trouble, all right?"

Thalia bristled at her mother's accusatory tone but didn't rise to the bait. She just said, "Yes, Mom," and watched her mother click out the door in her high heels.

Bored and on edge, Thalia wandered to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and felt suddenly sick of her appearance. She didn't want to be pretty or cute. She didn't feel like that. And she didn't want her mother to compare them anymore. She wasn't anything like her mother, and she promised herself she never would be.

She ran to the kitchen and grabbed a pair of scissors before hurrying back to her bathroom.

Thalia's hands trembled slightly as she raised the scissors to her hair. She knew that, if her mother came in, she would be in for a whole world of hurt. But if things went as planned, she would never have to see her mom again.

The first chop was surprisingly painless. A lock of black hair fell into the sink, joined quickly by another, and then another. Thalia didn't care too much about style. All she wanted was to look different.

Ten minutes later, Thalia set down the scissors. She examined her new haircut in the bathroom mirror and was pleased with what she saw. It was choppy and uneven, making her look a little wild—feral, even. She looked like someone who shouldn't be messed with. Tentatively, she ran a hand through her hair, dislodging the extra loose bits that hadn't fallen out right away. She felt lighter with her hair gone, and maybe a little bit more confident.

The stairs creaked and Thalia whipped around. Her mother was home, and stumbling drunk by the sound of it. Thalia could hear the uneven footsteps and quiet thuds from her mother falling against the wall. A flash of panic heated her limbs. She didn't think her mom would have called it a night so early.

_Do it_, a little voice whispered in her mind. _You're smart. You can survive. Leave here and never look back. _

_Okay_, Thalia thought. _I think I will. _

Thalia grabbed a spare backpack and filled it with a few spare pieces of clothing and as much non-perishable food as she could pack. Before she knew it, she'd stepped out the front door and was on the sidewalk.

Thalia glanced over her shoulder at her darkened house. Her mother wouldn't wake for hours now, and much as she hated to admit it, Ms. Grace wasn't likely to come after her, either. If she was lucky, she'd never have to lay eyes on her old house again. It wasn't a home to her, anyway. It never had been.

Thalia ran into a monster not ten blocks from her house. The hydra cornered her in an alley, spitting poison and barely missing her several times. Thalia was unarmed and—though she hated to admit it—pretty scared.

"What is this?" she shouted. "How is this possible? What _are _you?"

The many-headed, reptilian creature—Thalia's brain helpfully supplied the word "hydra"—snapped experimentally near Thalia's ear, missing her by inches. Thalia bit her tongue to keep from crying out. She would not, _would not _go down cowering and afraid. She would fight this thing if it was the last thing she did—which it very well might be.

The creature hissed at her, its multiple heads snaking around each other. Thalia lowered herself to the ground, feeling for a brick, a broken bottle, _something _that might help her. "Go on," she goaded. "Just because you have nine times as many brains as me doesn't mean you're nine times as smart."

She didn't know if hydras could understand English, but the one facing her seemed to get offended. It screeched, a sound like fingernails on a chalkboard, and spat poison so close to Thalia's foot that her sneaker started smoking. Thalia didn't know if some sort of twisted luck was protecting her or if the monster just had spectacularly bad aim, but she didn't plan to wait and see.

Her hand brushed something round and plastic. She grabbed whatever it was and brought it up to eye level—a Mace container.

_Better than nothing_, Thalia thought, though she didn't know if pepper spray would have any effect on a monster. She took a breath and yanked off the cap, brandishing the container in the monster's faces—except it wasn't a Mace container anymore. Thalia held a seven-foot-long spear like she was born to it.

_What the actual heck is going on? _Thalia thought, but didn't waste any time thinking of an answer. Sending a brief prayer up to whoever might be listening, she closed her eyes and threw the spear with all her strength.

The hydra wailed in pain and rage.

Thalia opened her eyes in time to see it dissolve into yellow dust. Her spear stuck out of the gravel at an angle, perfectly unharmed.

Tentatively, Thalia stepped forward and pulled the spear out of the ground. Experimentally, she gripped it in both hands and pushed inward. Instantly, the weapon collapsed back into a Mace container.

"Unbelievable," Thalia muttered, staring at the perfectly-innocent-looking container. "Absolutely unbelievable."

But her encounter with the hydra was only the start. Three years passed, and Thalia did battle with more monsters and creatures she'd only heard of in books

One evening, Thalia sat against a pine tree in a quiet park and started to settle down for the night. There weren't many people around, which she preferred: the fewer people, the less of a chance someone might try to rob her. Not that many people messed with Thalia—in the past three years, she'd adopted a scruffy, all-black wardrobe and a punk rock attitude that made most people cross the street when they saw her coming. This didn't bother her; in fact, she liked it that way.

"Hey." The voice was male and came from Thalia's left.

Her head snapped around, hand going for her disguised spear. If this yahoo wanted to attack her, she wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Whoa, take it easy. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." He held out his hands in surrender. "I'm Luke. What's your name?"

Thalia didn't relax. She'd been on her own too long to trust mere words from a stranger. Pretending to consider the question, she looked the boy up and down. He was maybe a year or two older than her, with blond hair, blue eyes, and a lean build. "Thalia," she said finally. "I'm Thalia."

"That's a cool name." He shifted his weight and a glint caught her eye. He had something strapped to his belt—but it couldn't be. Thalia blinked, hard, but the image didn't change. This kid was armed with a sword. But where had he gotten something like _that_?

She pointed. "Is that a _sword_?"

His hand dropped to the hilt, almost protectively. "What? No, of course not."

"Yes, it is. Where on earth did you get a sword? And what's it made of?"

He looked hard at her. "You can really see it?"

"Of course I can see it! It's right there. Are you going to tell me about it or not?"

He glanced around. "Look, I don't—we can't have this conversation here, okay? It's too dangerous. Follow me; I know someplace hidden we can go."

Thalia didn't think that was a good idea. If she were smart, she'd kick him in the shins and run in the opposite direction. But for some reason, she felt like she could trust this guy. Maybe it was in the way he carried himself or in his expression, but he seemed…relatable. Maybe he even reminded Thalia of herself, just a little bit. So she stood, dusted off her jeans, and followed him to a secluded alleyway.

Once she had stepped inside, Luke dragged a few garbage cans over to cover the gap they'd entered through and gestured for her to follow him to the back. A sleeping bag lay on the ground, along with a couple of blankets and some empty food wrappers. Thalia was strangely touched. This boy didn't even know her and he'd taken her back to his home.

Luke sat on the sleeping bag and patted the space beside him. After debating for a moment, Thalia crouched beside him. He pulled the sword from its place on his belt.

"Not many people can see this," he said, running a hand over the blade. "I'm not entirely sure why. You're the first person I've met who can. I guess that means we're…alike."

Thalia was confused. "Alike?"

"I—look, I'll get to that later. It's a special sword, okay? It can't hurt regular people."

"And where'd you get it?"

I found it," he said. "Well—sort of found it. I guess you could say I was led to it."

"What d'you mean?"

He took a breath. "This is going to sound really, really crazy, okay? Just bear with me." He sheathed the sword. "Okay, you know the gods? Like the Greek ones? They're—they're real."

He paused as if waiting for Thalia to protest, but she just blinked at him.

Luke swallowed and went on. "My dad is one—he's Hermes. Or that's what I think, anyway. My mom was always going on about him. A few months ago, I was kicking around in this patch of woods and all of a sudden I found this clearing. And I swear it wasn't there before, or I would have seen it. And lying in the leaves was this." He gestured to the sword.

"Just like that?"

"Yeah. I did some research the last time I was in a library—apparently, in myths, heroes' swords were made out of this metal called Celestial bronze. It can kill monsters."

"Oh," Thalia said softly. She would bet the head of her spear was made of that.

Luke leaned forward and started speaking faster, like he wanted to get out what he needed to say before Thalia interrupted him. "Like I said, Hermes is my dad. And I think you're like me. I think one of your parents is a god."

"My dad," Thalia said without thinking. "I have—I _had _a mom. Barely."

"That narrows it down, I guess." Luke looked down at his lap. "Hey, do you think—I mean, we should team up. For safety. You're the only other person I've met who's like me."

Thalia pondered this a minute. On the one hand, she could be getting herself into a huge mess of trouble that would ruin her life for years to come and could possibly end very badly. On the other, this guy was unlikely to be lying and, because she'd had some very close calls with monsters, Thalia didn't want to risk running up against something she couldn't defeat on her own.

"Sure," she said.

Luke did a double-take. "Really? You mean it?"

Thalia shrugged. "Why not? I think we can help each other."

Luke's face lit up. The expression didn't look quite comfortable on his face, like he hadn't used it in a while. "That's great! I mean—" He tried to smooth himself. "That's cool. I think we'll work together really well."

Thalia hid her laugh behind a cough.

"Do you have a weapon?" Luke asked.

"Yeah." Thalia pulled out her Mace container.

Luke looked like he was suppressing a smile with difficulty. "I don't think Mace is going to be very effective against—"

Thalia pulled on the ends of the container and her spear expanded in her hands. Luke stared at it.

"I stand corrected," he said.

"That's what I thought."

"What is _that_?"

Thalia didn't have any name for the thing, not that that made it any less dangerous. It looked like a very large dog, except it had two heads and a serpent for a tail. It was now a few months after her and Luke's first meeting. This wasn't the first monster they'd encountered, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but Thalia got a vibe from the demon hound that it was kind of pissed off.

"Doesn't matter," she said. "We know the drill."

She and Luke moved back-to-back as naturally as if they had been doing it for years. He drew his sword and she brandished her spear. So far, they'd only fought a few monsters together, but their fighting styles merged so naturally they worked together like they'd known each other their entire lives.

The monster snarled and paced around them, looking for an opening. Every time it stepped too close, Thalia or Luke would jab experimentally at it, causing it to back off. Eventually, the creature got bored of the stalemate and jumped forward to swipe at Thalia.

Thalia thunked the creature on one of its heads with the metal-shod end of her spear, making it go momentarily cross-eyed. With a neat backhand swipe, Luke sliced the serpent head off the monster's tail. The demon hound howled in pain and fury and lashed around, teeth snapping at the air. Good reflexes saved Luke; he jumped back just in time to avoid getting a chunk taken out of him. He, however, didn't jump back quite far enough.

With a snarl, the creature lunged forward and pinned Luke against the ground. It bared its fangs, ready to rip his throat out.

Without thinking, Thalia raised her spear and shouted. A bolt of pure electricity arced down from the sky and Thalia pointed her spear at the monster like it was second nature. The lightning bolt flowed through her spear like it was a conductor and hit the monster square in the backside. With a yelp, the creature exploded into yellow dust.

Though she had no idea how she'd managed to summon and control lightning, Thalia felt pretty proud of herself for managing to vanquish the monster. Her good mood deflated quickly, however, when she realized that her lightning attack hadn't been localized at just the demon hound—Luke had been hit too.

Thalia swore so fluently she surprised even herself. She ran to Luke's side and knelt beside him. His skin was clammy and his shirt was smoking—not good signs. He wouldn't open his eyes either, not even when she shook him.

"Hang in there, Luke," Thalia begged, dumping out the contents of her backpack in search of her supply of godly nectar. "Please."

She found the canteen and unscrewed the top as quickly as she could. She propped up Luke's head and poured some nectar into his mouth, though her hands were shaking so badly she splashed some of it down the front of his shirt.

"Please be okay," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

After several agonizing minutes, Luke shuddered and opened eyes. Thalia was so relieved she almost cried.

"I'm so sorry!" she said. "I didn't know I could do that. Please don't hate me."

Luke coughed. "I could never hate you. It's okay. Everyone makes mistakes, you know?"

"Not mistakes that almost get their friends _killed_. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Fine. I'm fine. Just give me a minute."

Thalia half-dragged, half-carried Luke over to a nearby tree and propped him gingerly up on it. She offered him more nectar, but he shook his head.

"We should conserve that. I'm fine." He gave her a weak smile. "I promise."

"How about we set up camp for the night?" Thalia said. "I think we both need to take a breather."

Later that night, around a makeshift campfire, Thalia cleaned her spear while Luke tossed a hacky-sack from one hand to the other.

"You know, my dad's the god of gamblers," Luke said idly. "I've never been much of one myself, but I'm willing to bet your dad is Zeus."

Thalia glanced at him. "Zeus?"

"King of the gods, lord of the sky, et cetera. He controls the weather—and his preferred weapon is lightning."

"Zeus is my dad," Thalia repeated. "Okay. Great. Why should I care?"

Luke shrugged. "You don't have to. It's not like he did anything for you, right?"

"He drove my mom off the deep end and into a downward spiral of alcoholism and self-hatred, but that's about it." Thalia twisted her hands in her lap, debating her next question. Finally, she decided, _Why not? _"What about you?"

Luke drew designs in the dirt with a stick and didn't look at Thalia as he answered. "My mom's not…all there. I dunno what happened, exactly, but she has these visions and starts ranting about my fate. It's really—it's hard to deal with. And even when she's not like that, she's—look, it's not pretty."

He was clearly agitated, and Thalia was a little sorry for bringing it up. "Hey, how about I take first watch? You should rest."

"I'm okay."

"I mean it," Thalia said, making sure to look him right in the eye.

He blinked. "Yes, ma'am," he said, and Thalia felt a little proud of herself. "Wake me up when you get tired, all right?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I'm serious. Don't stay up all night."

"I won't," Thalia said, though she had every intention of disobeying him and doing just that.

And she did. Because that's what friends do.

Time passed. One evening, Thalia and Luke crouched in the shadows near a building labeled "Richmond Ironworks," having heard noises coming from nearby.

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked.

Luke nodded. "Something down here. I sense it."

A rumble sounded through the alleyway. Thalia glanced at Luke, who nodded. The two held their weapons at the ready and crept forward, toward a group of old crates stacked on the loading dock. A sheet of corrugated tin shuddered like there was something behind it.

Thalia looked at Luke, who mouthed, "One, two, three," and yanked away the tin.

A blur of flannel and blonde hair flew forward, making Thalia jump.

"Whoa!" Luke said. He grabbed her wrist and her weapon of choice, a hammer, flew out of her hand.

Thalia was impressed; the girl had been lightning fast and would have brained Luke if his years on the streets hadn't honed his reflexes. And even when captured, the girl fought like a tiger, kicking at Luke and trying to claw at him. She couldn't have been more than seven or eight.

"No more monsters!" she shrieked. "Go away!"

"It's okay!" Luke said, holding onto her with difficulty. "Thalia, put your shield up. You're scaring her."

Thalia tapped her newest toy, a copy of her father's Aegis shield, and it melted back into a silver bracelet on her wrist. It had been a gift of sorts, but a hard-won one. She didn't like to think about the events leading up to her acquisition of the shield.

"Hey, it's all right," she said, trying to soothe the girl. "We're not going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke."

"Monsters!" the little girl insisted.

"No," Luke said. "But we know all about monsters. We fight them too."

_Do we ever, _Thalia thought.

Slowly, the girl stopped kicking and studied the two of them. Thalia noticed her eyes for the first time—they were large and strikingly gray.

"You're like me?" the girl asked.

"Yeah," Luke said. "We're…well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster fighters. Where's your family?"

"My family hates me," the girl said. "They don't want me. I ran away."

Luke looked at Thalia. She knew he was thinking of his own mother, and of hers. Maybe all kids with godly parents had crappy families.

"What's your name, kiddo?" Thalia asked.

"Annabeth," the girl said.

Thalia couldn't help but smile at that. It was an unusual name, but a pretty one, and she thought it suited the little girl well.

Luke smiled. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth—you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

Annabeth's eyes went wide. "You could?"

"Oh, yeah." Luke held out his knife to her. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."

Thalia could hardly believe what she was seeing. Luke had lost his sword some time ago in a fight, and the bronze knife was his only weapon—recently acquired, like her shield. Now he was just giving it up to this little girl, because she could use the protection more than he could.

Annabeth took the knife from Luke.

"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," he told her. They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife." He smiled at Annabeth. "I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

"I am!" Annabeth said, her gray eyes alight with adoration.

Thalia hid a smile behind her hand. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."

Annabeth looked suddenly suspicious. "You're…you're not going to take me back to my family? Promise?"

Luke put a hand on her shoulder. "You're part of our family now," he said. "And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Annabeth said happily.

"Now, come on," Thalia said. "We can't stay put for long."

Back in their safe house, Annabeth curled up by the campfire and promptly fell asleep. Hiding a smile, Thalia covered the girl with her coat and tucked her hair back from her face.

Luke sat by the door of the run-down house they'd taken over, watching the river. Thalia sat next to him and leaned against his shoulder.

"I think you've gained an admirer," she said, nodding toward the soundly-sleeping little girl.

"Stop it," Luke said, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Just teasing," Thalia said. "Hey, I think it's good we picked her up. Who knows what kind of trouble a seven-year-old half-blood could get into?"

"She was skinny," Luke mused. "I think she's been out on her own for at least a week, if not more."

"She's tough, then," Thalia said. "A survivor."

"Like us."

There was a pause. Then Thalia asked, "Should we ask her about it? Her family, I mean?"

"Nah. Let's wait a while. We have to build trust, you know?"

"Yeah." Thalia looked up at the sky through a hole in the roof, where a few scraps of clouds floated across a starry backdrop. The night was cool and quiet, and for once, Thalia felt at peace. A monster might attack them in the next few minutes, or the cops might find them and try to take them back to their parents. Who cared? Right now was all that mattered—and Thalia's "right now" looked pretty good.

"Luke?" she whispered.

His voice was drowsy when he answered. "Hm?"

"I think we're going to be a great family."


End file.
